Ex-Chicago detective convicted of fleeing fatal crash

2 men were killed in 2009 wreck on Dan Ryan

Former Chicago police Detective Joseph Frugoli was an 18-year veteran of the department at the time of the 2009 crash. (Kuni Takahashi, Chicago Tribune)

As emergency personnel raced to help two young men inside the burning car wreck, off-duty Chicago police Detective Joseph Frugoli walked past them in the opposite direction.

Frugoli, who had been helped out of his own car by a good Samaritan after the collision, knew he had just slammed his SUV into a car with people inside, a Cook County judge ruled Monday in convicting the veteran cop of two counts of leaving the scene of a fatal crash.

"He could have doubled-back," Judge Charles Burns said. "He chose not to. It was a conscious decision."

Faced with evidence that his blood alcohol content was three times the legal limit, Frugoli pleaded guilty last week to aggravated DUI charges in the deaths of Andrew Cazares, 23, and Fausto Manzera, 21, a DePaul University student, in the fiery wreck on the Dan Ryan Expressway in 2009.

To try to avoid a potentially longer prison sentence, Frugoli fought charges that he fled the scene. His lawyers argued he was physically injured and disoriented by the crash and did not knowingly leave the scene.

He could be sentenced to probation or up to 31 years in prison. Burns ordered Frugoli held at home on electronic monitoring until his sentencing. No sentencing date was set.

Burns acquitted him on two more serious counts of leaving the scene of a fatal crash. Frugoli was accused of failing to report the crash within 30 minutes. The judge cited evidence that Frugoli told an arresting officer that he had been in a crash on the expressway.

Frugoli, an 18-year veteran of the department at the time of the crash, had been stripped of police powers after the wreck. He resigned from the department last month, days before admitting his guilt in the fatal crash.

Relatives and friends of the two victims packed Burns' courtroom at the Leighton Criminal Court Building for the two-day bench trial. Many wept as prosecutors detailed the massive injuries suffered by both men in the April 2009 crash.

Several emergency workers and hospital workers testified that Frugoli denied he was the driver. Prosecutors argued that showed his intent to flee and not report the accident.

A witness to the crash testified that Frugoli drove on a Dan Ryan southbound ramp from Roosevelt Road at a high rate of speed moments before the crash.